Scribblenauts Remix

If you’ve followed DS gaming, chances are you’re at least familiar with Scribblenauts. 5th Cell’s ‘write anything’ concept ending up spawning two games that garnered quite a loyal following. Scribblenauts Remix serves as a ‘greatest hits’ for the series, and newcomers shouldn’t think twice about purchasing it.

Each level in Scribblenauts Remix requires you to collect the “starite” that’s placed in each level. The gameplay is super-intuitive: almost any object you can think of can be brought into the game just by writing the name of it in your character’s notebook. You can even use adjectives, so the possibilities for solving the levels are endless. The in-game dictionary is deep enough that, bar copyrighted material, almost anything you think of can be created. It’s worth noting that the time machine’s functionality has been removed from the game.

Just like real life.

The levels 5th Cell has pulled from previous games (mostly Super Scribblenauts) tend to be on the easier side, and some of the better puzzles are omitted. However, that doesn’t mean that what’s here isn’t fun to work through. There are even 10 iOS-exclusive levels available, bringing the level count to 50. While this is significantly fewer levels than in the DS titles, it’s a fair offering for the asking price. There’s also a sandbox mode, where you can write in anything you want just to play with the game’s extremely clever and impressive mechanics.

We would have liked to have seen the level editor and gold star challenge system from the previous games brought over into the iOS version, but they didn’t make the cut. This exclusion takes away much of the replay value of the original games. Here, you’ll blast through the puzzles in about two hours.

Demon in the classroom.

The clunky controls for Maxwell, the chicken-haired protagonist, have always been a point of contention in Scribblenauts games, and it’s no different on iOS. Touch-based movement works well, and typing on the iOS keyboard is better than the DS touchscreen, but the developers removed your ability to make Maxwell jump. This omission can be problematic at times, but it’s never game breaking.

Scribblenauts Remix uses iCloud to sync game data between your iPhone and iPad instantly. This is a welcome feature that we hope becomes the standard for all universal apps. GameCenter implementation tracks achievements and leaderboards.

While there may not be much worth seeing for returning scribblenauts, newcomers should experience Scribblenauts at least once and, for the relatively low point of entry, there’s no good reason not to.

In a surprise move, Warner Bros. has just released Scribblenauts Remix on the App Store. The Scribblenauts series originally appeared on the Nintendo DS in the form of Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts. Remix contains 40 levels from those two games, as well as 10 levels unique to the iOS version. The goal of each level in this puzzle/platformer is to grab the starite– but how you go about doing that depends on how creative you’re feeling. The game is available here for $4.99.

You can summon nearly anything you can think of into existence in Scribblenauts Remix, so the gameplay hinges on your creative brain power. For instance, if a starite is in a tree, you can type in “axe” to conjure and axe that you can use to chop down the tree, bringing the starite down to your character’s level. Or, if you want to be a little more bold, you can type “helicopter” and hop in it to fly up and grab the starite.

As in Super Scribblenauts on the DS, you can even use adjectives, so you can write “giant helicopter” if you’re feeling bold. While the choices aren’t infinite– don’t expect to be able to summon genitals– your options are astoundingly vast. (Note that we’ve only played Scribblenauts on the DS, but we’ll have a review of the iOS version up as soon as possible).

Scribblenauts Remix is a universal app that uses iCloud to sync your save between all of your iOS devices, which is pretty cool. Check it out now if you want to exercise your creative bone, or wait for our review if you want to exercise caution.

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We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

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There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

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We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

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